Capsicum caballeroi

Capsicum caballeroi is a wild Bolivian species first described by Michael Nee in 2006 from material collected near Comarapa in 1994. It is native to central Bolivia and is associated with the Yungas and adjoining montane cloud-forest environments, including the Amboró region, where it grows in very moist, shaded forest between about 1900 and 2600 m. It is also known locally as ají de monte and ulupica de yunga.

The plant is a tall shrub to small tree, commonly described in the field at up to about 2.5 m tall. It has lanceolate, light green leaves that are almost glabrous to sparsely hairy, and the branches can carry paired leaves of similar form. One of its defining traits is the flower, with long pendent pedicels about 3 to 5 cm long, a calyx with 10 teeth, and a bright yellow campanulate corolla about 15 to 20 mm long. The fully yellow corolla is one of the most distinctive visual traits of the species.

The fruit are small, round to slightly compressed berries, usually about 9 to 14 mm across. They begin light green and mature bright red, with a soft texture and a deciduous habit. Published descriptions and field reports consistently describe the fruit as pungent to very hot, with relatively large pale to straw-coloured seeds for the fruit size. This combination of narrow light green foliage, yellow flowers, and small bright red hot berries gives Capsicum caballeroi a very distinctive identity among wild Capsicum species.